The Malatya Plain is a plain in Eastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

between the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

valley to the east and the

Taurus Mountains The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğird ...

to the south and southeast. Its altitude varies between 700 and 1100 meters above the sea level.Mechanical investigation on adobe samples belonging to the archaeological site of Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey)
J. Mater. Environ. Sci. 7 (10) (2016) 3656-3666 The plain is somewhat unlevel, with undulating ridges and fells.p.11
/ref>Yakar, J., A. Gürsan Salzmann,
Archaeological Survey in the Malatya and Sivas Provinces — 1977", Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, Volume 6, 1979 - Issue 1-2 6 (1977): 34–53
/ref> The climate in the area is semi-arid, because Taurus Mountains block precipitation originating from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

. The mean annual precipitation is low (350-400mm), mostly coming from snow. AT the same time, the area is favorable for cultivation due to springs based on water-bearing strata and karst waters, and rivers coming from the mountains and converging into the Euphrates. The plain is located on the Anatolian Plate near its edge by the seismically active East Anatolian Fault Zone and the seismically active North Anatolian Fault Zone. The

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

of Arslantepe is located within the plain, an oasis 15 km south off the Euphrates.

References

Plains of Turkey Landforms of Malatya Province {{Malatya-geo-stub